Influencer Marketing: What it Entails, Benefits, and Harms

Instructions

As we discussed in class, sociotechnical imaginaries are “collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable [or undesirable] futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life … attainable through…advances in science and technology.”^[1] In other words, sociotechnical imaginaries are widely-shared visions of how technologies could shape our future. For your second assignment, you will analyze the social imaginaries connected to EITHER targeted digital advertising OR influencer marketing. 

Choose one of the two options below and write your responses to the questions. There is no length limit for your responses, but your responses taken all together should sum up to at least 500 words in total. Make sure to answer all the questions: your response should include answers to questions 1, 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b.

Option 1: Targeted advertising

1. First, explain what the practice entails. How does targeted digital advertising work, according to Turow and Watkins? What particular kinds of data does it draw upon? (30 points)

 Next, explain the kinds of sociotechnical imaginaries—both positive and negative—that are associated with the practice of targeted digital advertising. 

2a. According to Turow and Wu, what kinds of future benefits are imagined to be available through targeted advertising? (20 points)

2b. According to Wu, Turow, and Tarnoff & Weigel, what kinds of harms could targeted advertising pose to individuals or society? How are these future visions themselves problematic, according to Tarnoff & Weigel? (20 points)

Finally, use ideas from the course to assess these imagined futures (hint: these questions ask you to use your imagination and the readings to develop and support an informed opinion).

3a. First, in your opinion, are these imagined futures likely to become real? Why or why not? Use ideas from course readings in the course to support your reasoning. (40 points)

3b. Second, in your opinion, what could be done to minimize the harms of targeted advertising while maximizing the benefits? Use ideas from course readings in the course to support your reasoning. (40 points)

Option 2: Influencer marketing

1. First, explain what the practice entails. In class, we discussed the different means by which social media influencers and creators get paid. In your own words, explain what they are and how they work. How does this differ between Instagram and YouTube? Cite Duffy and Alexander in your response. (30 points)

 Next, explain the kinds of sociotechnical imaginaries—both positive and negative—that are associated with the practice of social media influencing.

2a. According to Duffy, Alexander, and our lecture, what kinds of future benefits are imagined to be available to a person who becomes a social media influencer or creator? (20 points) 

2b. According to Duffy, Owens, and Alexander, what kinds of harms could influencer marketing pose to individuals or society? (20 points) 

Finally, use ideas from the course to assess these imagined futures (hint: these questions ask you to use your imagination and the readings to develop and support an informed opinion). 

 3a. First, in your opinion, are these imagined futures likely to become real? Why or why not? Use ideas from course readings in the course to support your reasoning. (40 points) 

3b. Second, in your opinion, what could be done to minimize the harms of influencer marketing while maximizing the benefits? Use ideas from course readings in the course to support your reasoning. (40 points)

Citation requirements and other practical matters

In your responses, avoid quoting more than three or four words at a time from course readings or lectures: instead, use your own words whenever possible. This does NOT mean using a thesaurus to replace words in the author’s sentence, it means explaining the idea as you understand it. 

Give credit to the authors when you refer to ideas from the readings, using the bibliographic information found in the syllabus. For example:

• You may use parenthetical citation, in which you place the author’s name and the date of publication in parentheses at the end of the sentence: “Branding can be a signal of consistent product quality (Jones, 2017).”
• Or you may cite in a sentence: “Jones (2017) explains that branding can be a signal of the consistent quality of a product.”
• If you directly quote from a reading, include the page number from which you are quoting.
• If you wish to cite lectures, you may cite them as “Lecture, [date].” For example: “Advertising is both a commercial force and a social force (Lecture, January 6).”

A separate works cited page is not required. You do not need to write a formal introduction or conclusion.